Summer Love
by ava mia
Summary: "Well, that didn't go as planned," said Hermione. Draco scoffed, "And that still surprises you when nothing in this trip has gone as planned?" / the Granger family, a trip around Muggle Europe, and a fake fiancé.
1. July 1 & 2, 2009

**[**_July 1, 2009_**]**

Hermione Granger glanced at her watch and, somehow discreetly, huffed in annoyance. It was half past three in the afternoon and their meeting was supposed to begin just about right now if it wasn't for a certain Potions professor that was running late – it was the last meeting for the school year and the professors could finally go on their own merry ways to enjoy their break. Hermione planned on finishing packing before visiting the Burrow later that evening before actually leaving Hogwarts the next day. She just wants to finally get this meeting over with.

Seconds later, the door swung open and the professor swiftly took his seat next to Hermione.

"You're late, Professor _Malfoy_," whispered Hermione, drawling his name to express her annoyance.

Draco Malfoy's silver eyes blankly stared at her brown ones, "did I miss anything?"

"No–"

"I guess I'm not late then," he quickly said to cut her off.

Hermione, once again, huffed in annoyance. First, he doesn't come on time for the meeting, then he decides to be a prick about it?

The tension was growing between them and the headmistress knew better than letting the two get into another heated argument. Before Hermione could say anything, the meeting started.

ooo

"Insufferable prat, that he is," Ginny Weasley finished for Hermione as she ranted about Draco Malfoy's behavior and lack of punctuality earlier that day. Ginny has slightly grown tired of the uncreative names her friend calls the Potions professor whenever she's pissed at him. The redhead knows all too well why such a simple thing riled Hermione up – and she's sure it wasn't only because he was late to the meeting. It was a Friday night after a week-long of Quidditch practice for Ginny and she's listening to a, yet another, rant from Hermione about a certain blond. Here she thought that she would be peacefully resting and happily eating dinner prepared by her mother upon arriving at the Burrow today.

Ginny sat on one of the couches with her legs crossed and watched Hermione continue to pace back and forth in the living room. She comes to a halt and scoffed, probably thinking of Malfoy, and sat next to Ginny.

"I still don't understand why you two don't get along when everybody else already does," Ginny expressed, but Hermione could only cross her arms and roll her eyes. "Enough about him though. Tell me about your upcoming trip to Europe with your family."

"You know, I think today isn't just my day. I got a text from my mum after the meeting and guess who's coming along."

"No," Ginny breathed, slightly leaning forward. "Genevieve, the crush stealer, is coming with you?"

"Yes." Hermione groaned. She took her phone from her pocket and read her mum's text for Ginny, "Your cousin Genevieve and her family are joining us for the rest of our trip after our visit in Provence."

Together, Ginny and Hermione groaned at the thought of Genevieve, making Molly look back at them from the kitchen. The youngest Weasley has heard enough stories about Genevieve to be able to share the same annoyance Hermione has for her.

"You avoided Christmas reunions, but here you are, about to spend half of your break with Genevieve," Ginny looked at her sympathetically.

"Oh, Godric. Which reminds me of why I haven't been attending our reunions," said Hermione, burying her face. "That was so foolish of me!"

"Well, it's not like anyone predicted that you'd still be single even after three reunions," said Ginny, shamelessly, and the brunette could only glare at her.

Hermione Granger may have or may have not sworn to Genevieve's face that the next time they see each other, she'd have a ring on her finger.

ooo

"Maybe you could ask Blaise? I bet he'll do a fantastic job in playing the part of being your fake fiancé,"

"I'm not that comfortable with him enough to ask him to be my fake fiancé,"

After Ginny came up with the idea of having someone pretend to be Hermione's fiancé last night, she persuaded her friend to stay the night so they could devise a plan the next morning. How Hermione came to agree to that preposterous idea, no one knows. Morning came and they haven't gotten up from their beds but it's been half an hour since they started talking.

"Maybe Fred?" Ginny suggested, cheekily smiling at Hermione when she saw her blush. "_He's tall, smart, good-looking, and a lot more. Isn't he just ideal?_" teased Ginny, repeating word for word on how third-year Hermione used to describe Fred.

"Stop it! Those times are ancient now," said Hermione, "besides, he has the shop to attend to." Up until today, she thanks the heavens that Fred was completely oblivious at her apparent crush on him back in their Hogwarts days. It took Ginny a minute to take a good laugh before dropping the topic.

"How about Neville? He's gotten to be quite a good looking man now," said Ginny, wiggling her brows at Hermione.

Hermione chuckles. "He won't actually be a bad pick if only he didn't have a girlfriend at the moment," making Ginny gasp. It's only been a while since Neville started dating Hannah Abbott and though it wasn't a secret, only Hogwarts professors knew about it so far.

"That's too bad for you. It would've been perfect, seeing that he'd be on vacation as well," her voice slowed and toned down, making Hermione turn to look at her. Ginny just had the best idea, and she's pretty sure Hermione won't like it one bit. She smirked at her friend's apparent confusion and said, "I think I might just know who is more perfect than Neville. Tall, smart, and good-looking. I also know for a fact that he has no important obligations this summer, and is most certainly not dating anyone at the moment."

ooo

**[**_July 2, 2009_**]**

Hermione must be crazy to even consider this person – heck, to even consider the plan.

She returned to her chambers in Hogwarts after having breakfast at the Burrow. She had finished her packing and was about to leave the school – when she thought back on who Ginny suggested. Again, she must be crazy enough to actually stand face to face with the painting that leads to his chamber.

"No," she whispered to herself. "It's not as if he would agree to pretend to be my fiancé even if I asked him."

Hermione starts to turn around, finally accepting the fact that she would just be humiliated by Genevieve once again – when she hears his voice before she completely turns and sees him standing in front of her.

"What made you think that?" asked Draco, raising a curious brow at her. He didn't look judgmental or anything of the same sort, rather just simply wondering why.

"P...professor Malfoy," called Hermione, sounding like a student caught out of bed after curfew.

"Professor Granger," he called back. He walked past her and tapped his wand on the painting in the right places to open the passage to his chamber. Draco glanced from his shoulder to see his fellow professor still stunned. He smirked, "Catching flies there, professor?"

"Since when have you…"

"Been standing there?" he asked, then turning around to face her. "I was walking right behind you. You kind of blocked my way and before I could make my presence known, you started talking to yourself."

The Transfiguration professor was still too flustered to talk, and so he simply said, "I'll be at Malfoy Manor."


	2. July 3, 2009

**[**_July 3, 2009_**]**

Draco Malfoy was in the middle of reading a book in the living room when he heard the familiar roar of the green flames. He turned his head to see who had flooed into his home – and he could already tell just by the person's physique, making him smirk.

His eyes trailed back to his book and gently placed a bookmark between the pages. "I have to say," he began, "with the Gryffindor courage your lot seems to be all proud of, I expected you to show up earlier than this."

"A day and a half?" asked Draco – more to himself than to the person who just flooed in. He snapped the book closed and placed it next to him on the table in front of him before standing up to greet his guest. "Please, have a seat, Professor Granger."

"Professor Malfoy," she simply greeted with a curt nod.

Only then did Draco see Hermione Granger properly. She walked proudly, as she always did – shoulders back and head held high – but he could see in her eyes that she wasn't as proud as she looks.

She gracefully sat down on the couch across him and gave him a blank look. Hermione tried her best to mask her emotions with a confident façade. Honestly, Hermione's not sure of what she was feeling at that moment. She doesn't know if it's the memories she had of the place or the thought of asking Draco Malfoy, of all people, for such a personal request.

He called for his personal house-elf, Naya, and asked her to bring tea for him and his guest. The house-elf was very much happy to oblige to her kind master's orders and apparated away. Just as Draco sat back down, a tea set appeared on the table between them. He leaned forward and poured them some tea.

"You probably came here thinking that I know and understand why you were standing outside my chamber," he said and handed a teacup to Hermione. She muttered a 'thank you' and pulled the teacup to her lips to take a sip. Draco did the same but before taking a sip, he spoke, "Let me get ahead of you and tell you that I haven't got a clue on what you thought that I would not agree on."

Hermione almost choked on her tea upon hearing those words escape Draco's lips. Clearing her throat and placing the cup down, and pathetically sputtered "Wha...what?"

She did come thinking that she didn't have to stupidly ask him 'hey, can you be my fiancé and travel around Europe with me and my family for three weeks' since he already overheard her talking to herself in front of his personal chamber.

"Then why did you tell me you'd be here? Which to me seemed like an invitation. There'd be no other reason for you to invite me over without proper reason."

"Oh, you're not wrong. It was an invitation," said Draco, smirking. He placed the cup down as well and leaned back proudly, "but you wouldn't have come here without proper reason."

Once again, Hermione got flustered because of Draco Malfoy. Her posture kind of faltered – she knew he was right. She knew that he knew he was right and it annoyed her. Before, Hermione used to think that he couldn't possibly be smugger than he usually is – but this day proved it wrong.

Draco couldn't help himself. It was such a rare opportunity to pass up. _Hermione Granger_, needing his help? What a time to live!

"I'm pretty sure it was something along the lines of me not agreeing to do I don't know what–"

"I need you to pretend to be my fiancé until the end of the month. I need to put on a show to save my face because of something stupid I said three years ago."

He wouldn't admit it, but he kind of got flustered at what Hermione just said. It didn't show since he quickly regained his composure – Hermione would've seen it if she paid extra attention – and smirked at her. "Well, let's not go beating around the bush here and cut to the chase," he joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Tell me more."

She raised her eyes to look at the blond man. Somehow, it comforted her a little to know that Draco Malfoy was no longer the vile and blood prejudiced boy she knew him to be. She suddenly remembered the day of the students' return to Hogwarts five years ago. She saw him talking with the Headmistress in one of the Potions classrooms when she happened to pass by. Later that evening, he sat next to her at the High Table and greeted the new school year ahead of them together. They were very civil with one another and got closer as time passed. One day, they were back to square one – and it hasn't progressed since. Hence, the constant arguments between the two.

"As much as I hate to admit this to anyone," she muttered aside. "You see, I haven't been attending my family's annual Christmas reunion because of one annoying cousin and a stupid statement I made."

"Go on. I'm interested."

"My feelings of annoyance for my cousin goes way back. This particular cousin of mine, changing boyfriends for her is as easy and as fast as breathing. Total slag. I don't see what's there to be proud of, but she makes it a point to remind me every single reunion and that I might as well be considered as an old maiden," she paused to take a breath, but her company took the opportunity to express his amusement.

"I can only imagine the look on your face when you heard her say that."

"I was completely livid! Then I blurted the words, 'you'll see who'll be wearing a ring on her finger the next time we meet' before storming off to my room. Only then did I realize what I said," she sighed, "we talked it out after, but I'm still very embarrassed about it."

Draco almost smiled at the sight of the brunette. _She looks kind of cu– nevermind_. He shook the thought away and propped himself up.

"This trip to Europe, when is it?" asked Draco, and he swore he saw her eyes spark at his question.

"Exactly next week, on the 10th of July," answered Hermione.

"Great," said Draco. "We have the entire week, then."

"For what?"

"To get-to-know each other," he said, "_properly_."

Hermione smiled at him, reaching a hand out to him, she said, "I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"

Draco took her hand, "I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."


End file.
